Reviews/Copywriting

Issue I

The Grind began in October 2013 when I approached Beanscene about creating a print publication for writers and artists in Scotland. The partnership fell through shortly after its inception due to creative differences, but by this point The Grind had developed a small following and had received enough submissions to assemble the first issue.

The first issue was constructed on a friend's laptop with no '7' key, no delete key, half the screen obscured by spray paint, and a 30 day free trial of InDesign. I had never used the software before, but took to it quickly with help from some friends.

The Grind's mission was, and continues to be, to promote the arts in Scotland and to give a voice to those who do not have one. The Grind sits outside the nepotism and schiamachy of the arts and will always do its best to subvert expectations. It is a home for people who feel excluded from the arts as well as those who thrive in it. ​

Initially I imagined The Grind being a one off. The first issue received around 50 submissions from all over Scotland and was well received upon its release, so I decided to pursue the idea further. We held our launch night in Broadcast in Glasgow on 01.12.13 which was well attended and gave me my first experience in larger event organisation (outside of the literary and musical events I ran for Beanscene).

Issue II

Issue II of The Grind faced significant delays due to excessive working hours and a lack of resources. However, in March 2014 it was finally released and once again very well received. The number of submissions we received doubled and was downloaded several hundred times in the first few days of publication.

Issue III

In August 2014 I moved to Edinburgh and began work on Issue III. The submissions we received numbered in the hundreds and I took responsibility for the design, moving the aesthetic and feel of The Grind into slightly more abstract territory. I had also learned a great deal about the literary landscape in Scotland by this point and realised The Grind was a very small fish in a very large pond. I decided to move away from the idea of The Grind being a digital publication and pursue new avenues to promote and display people's work. I also met my colleague Craig Allan of [Untitled] Falkirk at this point and began to organise a series of food bank fundraisers scheduled for the end of 2014 and start of 2015.

Issue III was released on 01.09.15 and was downloaded over 1000 times on the first day of publication.

Issue IV

ISSUE IV saw the advancement of THE GRIND's aesthetic both technically and stylistically. Content-wise, ISSUE IV was the longest and most complex issue to date. The idea of reality's inner workings unfurling was prominent throughout the promotion of the issue and the design of the issue itself. This issue received approximately the same number of submissions as Issue III and was similarly received.

It was also at this point that I began to implement an idea I had been exploring since establishing The Grind; wrapping the entire publication up into a fictional narrative. This would allow me to take The Grind into stranger, more experimental territory and was also not something I had seen done before. I began to distance myself from the position of Editor, instead referring to The Editor as a separate, fictional character, and started building a fictional mythology of The Grind. This was continued in our first print publication, REMNANTS, and into ISSUE V and upcoming podcast.

REMNANTS

REMNANTS was The Grind's first print publication. It contained work from contributors to the first three issues and continued the idea that The Grind exists in its own alternate universe. The booklet was sold online and broke even in a month before I removed it from sale in order to distribute copies at events.

Introduction:

"Very little is known about The Grind. All we know for certain is that it first appeared in 2013 in Glasgow, Scotland. Throughout the process of compiling this anthology we encountered misinformation, resolute denial, and a stubborn refusal to acknowledge its existence. Anyone affiliated with the publication wither refused to speak to us or gave us anecdotal evidence that later turned out to be blatantly false. Whether this has something to do with the mysterious disappearance of The Editor in the mid-2010s is unknown. Even less is known about The Editor than The Grind itself.

Aside from the fragments you are about to see, which were donated anonymously to the library last year, the only other trace of The Grind we could find were coordinates written on an envelope in what has been confirmed as The Editor's handwriting. The coordinates led to an uncharted cave deep in the Carpathian mountains. Inside was a large pyramid, around 25 feet tall, made of an unknown dark material that was peculiarly cold despite the intense Romanian heat. We determined that the pyramid must have been a vault or tomb of some kind.

At the time of writing we had not gained access to the pyramid.La momentul scrierii no obtinusem înca la piramida.

Epilogue:

"The pyramid was empty. The only sign that anyone had ever been inside was a single verse etched neatly into the floor.

Sleep with little restWork for no rewardDream with boundless ambitionAnd be happy despite it all"

Radio

After a successful appearance on 98.8 Castle FM's Daily Talk show I was invited to host my own show on the station. Between January and May 2015 The Grind's show featured interviews and discussion with artists and writers from around Scotland. I was eventually forced to give up the show due to work commitments. However, the experience led to me meeting Rob Bayley who hosted Castle FM's weekly rock show. We are now developing a podcast, details of which are below.

Issue V

I decided that Issue V of The Grind was going to be the last issue released in PDF format. The Grind's audience was still growing steadily, but I felt that there were more effective ways of promoting art and literature in Scotland that would also expand The Grind's reach.

The last issue, entitled Fuck The Grind (a refrain that has proved popular at various events and in social media posts), received many hundreds of submissions and was the longest issue we released. The name was carefully chosen to promote The Grind's position as "the other"; it is in the art world, but not of it.

The Grind Podcast

The Grind will shortly launch a podcast that will promote the arts in Scotland as well as furthering the fictional narrative of The Grind. It is set in an alternate reality where The Grind is a subsidiary of a morally ambiguous mega-corporation called Omnigood. The podcast is being recorded in conjunction with Embassy Gallery in Edinburgh.